Trump On Spicer’s Future: ‘He’s Been There From The Beginning’ (VIDEO)

President Donald Trump on Friday was vague on the future of White House press secretary Sean Spicer, saying that Spicer was “doing a good job, but he gets beat up.”

He also emphasized, in light of criticism of the White House’s continually changing narrative regarding former FBI Director James Comey’s ouster, that he could simply severely limit press conferences and do them all himself.

“Is he your press secretary today and tomorrow? Will he be tomorrow?” Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro asked Trump in an interview the network partially aired Friday afternoon, referring to Spicer.

“Yeah, he is. He is,” Trump said, before hedging: “Well, he’s doing a good job, but he gets beat up.”

“Will he be there tomorrow?” she asked again.

“Yeah, well, he’s been there from the beginning,” Trump said.

“Is he in the, in the – What do they say, is he in the woods?” she asked.

“He’s getting beat up,” Trump said. “No, he just gets beat up by these people and again you know they don’t show the 90 questions that they asked and answered properly. I’m saying if they’re off just a little bit, just a little bit, it’s the big story.”

“When will you make a decision as to whether or not you’re gonna keep having him?” Pirro asked. Trump didn’t answer.

Earlier, Spirro asked if Trump was “moving so quickly that your communications department cannot keep up with you.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Trump interrupted her.

The White House has faced harsh criticism since Comey’s abrupt firing Tuesday for its changing narratives about the firing.

“What do we do about that, because— ” Pirro began to ask.

“We don’t have press conferences,” he said.

“You don’t mean that,” she said.

“Just don’t have them,” he said after pausing. “Unless I have them every two weeks and I do it myself. We don’t have them. I think it’s a good idea.”

Trump tweeted Friday morning that “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!”

“Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???” he added.

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, the White House floated the possibility that it would move the press briefing room out of the West Wing. The press ultimately stayed put.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Shuham is a news writer for TPM. He was previously assistant editor of The National Memo and managing editor of the Harvard Political Review. He is available by email at mshuham@talkingpointsmemo.com and on Twitter @mattshuham.